https://odb.org/MY/2023/02/16/reflecting-his-light

In John chapter 1, John describes Jesus as the Word (Logos) who was there at the beginning. He went on to state that the Word was with God and was God. In John 1:4, it is written that in Him was life, and the life was the light of men. In verse 14, John then stated that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, that we beheld His glory, the glory as the only glory of the begotten Father, full of grace and truth. Thus, Jesus was the Word and that He was the source of life and the light for mankind as Jesus was with God at the beginning and was God.

Although we understand the Word (Logos) to mean the written Word of God as in Scriptures, Logos as enumerated by John has a broader meaning. In Greek thought, then prevalent, Logos means the source of life, the source in the universe that brings forth life. Logos was the force that existed even before creation, before Zeus and all the gods in Greek mythology. Thus, John asserted that Jesus and the Father were both that Logos as the Holy Trinity that existed at the beginning, before anything even existed. That is why the Word (Logos) was the source of life and light for humanity.

Applying this to the concept of light for paintings, the principle is reflected light is never as strong as source light. Reflected light belongs to the shadow (background) and must support and not compete with the source of light. Thus, as a life that came from God, we will never be as strong as the source of life in God and must likewise support and not compete with God. Our lives should reflect His glory, His light, His life. That is why He must come forth, and we must be in the shadow (background). Let Jesus be in front, take the limelight, and be the prominent one in our lives. Like the case of John the Baptist, proclaiming the coming of the Kingdom of God, the one whose thongs on His sandals he was not even worthy to untie (Luke 3:15-17).

This morning, as we start our day and go to work or college, just remember that Jesus is the source of life and light. Without Him, we have no life and no light, too. Let our lives therefore reflect His glory and light as we put Him in the forefront, and we withdraw into the shadow so that His life and light truly shine forth from our lives!

https://odb.org/MY/2023/02/15/juror-number-8

It is one thing to go against the crowd in terms of us not comforming to the pattern of the world, but this is more of us having the courage to be honest in a particular situation. This is actually not as straightforward as we may want to think it is. For example, if a lady asks us whether we think she is fat, being completely honest is quite suicidal and may also be devastating to the inquirer. Yet we are not to lie. So perhaps a good solution is to side step the question to avoid being honest or lie. Another situation is when confronted with a difficult question in a meeting with the big boss like the CEO. As much as people say negative things about ‘yes men’, it may not be advisable to be completely honest if the answer will embarrass your boss or your big boss. So perhaps the solution is to fudge the answer in such a way that we are non-committal on the answer without being completely honest and yet not lying.

In today’s ODB life example of the movie, 12 Angry Men, the eigth juror took a dissenting view and expressed doubt on the culpability of the person charged and in the end convinced all the other jurors to follow suit. The test for criminal culpability in law is that of beyond reasonable doubt, meaning to say, if we have doubts, we don’t convict as the accused will be deprived of liberty or life if found guilty. Thus, we can not afford to make a mistake. The consequence is jail or death. In civil cases between aggrieved parties like a suit for a breach of contract, the standard applied is lower, that is, on balance of probabilities. This means if we think on a scale that the plaintiff is 51% entitled to his claim, we give judgment to him. Thus, the context of Exodus 23 is very much in a lawsuit or the administration of justice. In such instances, we must not bear false witness or use the justice system to oppress the poor or the foreigner, and that includes bribing the judge to achieve a favourable result. There must be fairness and justice when we conduct ourselves in a court of law, whether as a plaintiff, lawyer, prosecutor, or judge. Let the truth prevail and let the aggrieved party be entitled to his claim in accordance with the law if indeed that was the truth.

In other instances, I think we should still exercise honesty with courage but also wisdom. Just because we are Christian does not mean we have to be completely honest all the time. We must still not lie, but I think if the situation is not conducive for us to be completely honest, we must avoid answering the question. In Genesis 12 and 20, Abraham lied twice about Sarah, his wife, as his sister, and in the second instance when the King Abimelech took Sarah into his harem, the LORD intervened and threatened to destroy the King. In that instance, God told the King the truth of the situation.

In conclusion, I just like to say that we must always exercise wisdom in our dealings with one another and others. Honest courage is indeed a virtue and should be aspired to, but there could be times when we need to exercise wisdom in our ultimate choice of words.

https://odb.org/MY/2023/02/14/rejoicing-love

Today is the day we celebrate love, the romantic love between lovers. The love that two persons in love build their lives upon. The love that lovers base and plan their future. With this love, the world is their oyster. They can conquer the world and achieve great things together as a couple where they dream dreams of shared destinies.

To Christians, Valentine’s Day is worldly and may even be of the devil, but true love should nevertheless be applauded and celebrated even if we may be wary of its pagan origins or the commercial capitalism of the celebrated day. As much as the name of the day is based on a 3rd century Christian martyr, St. Valentine, the Catholic saint’s life and work were never about romantic love. Furthermore, the celebrated day of 14th February was based on a 15th February pagan festival named Lupercalia, a fertility festival dedicated to Faunus, the Roman god of agriculture.

There is merit in celebrating romantic love except that true love transcends youth, beauty, means, achievement, success, and health. Romantic love, if it is love that is true, should be consummated only in marriage, and the Christian marriage vow typically embodies the promise to hold the other for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness, in health, to live, to cherish, till death do us part or till Christ returns. It is a vow to take no other flesh except our beloved, and it is until the day we or our better half perishes.

It’s a lifelong commitment, and we stick with one another through thick and thin, no matter the hardship or illness that may befall us, whether we have a job or not or whether our business is a roaring success or a dismal failure, from black to gray hair. We don’t run at the first sign of trouble. Instead, we protect and shield when our love is threatened. We love even if she doesn’t love us anymore because Christ will still love us even if we don’t love Him, and He first loved us when we didn’t even know Him yet.

Love is not just a feeling but a verb. That means we consciously choose to love despite our loved one’s weaknesses and idiosyncrasies, despite our emotions. We love because of who she is, not because of what she can give us. Love is selfless and not selfish. As Paul teaches in 1 Corinthians 13, love is, inter alia, long-suffering and kind, patient, does not envy, does not seek evil, does not seek its own, bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things and endures all things!

Happy and blessed Valentine’s Day, everyone! Let’s celebrate true love as God is a God of love and is love! Let’s love our loved ones with true, genuine, everlasting, and enduring love of God!

https://odb.org/MY/2023/02/13/when-hard-pressed

There are two ways to deal with fears : avoid and run away, or face them head-on. I guess the former is the natural option taken by most people. We have a fear, so we avoid. A simple thing like driving, which comes naturally to people who drive, will become a major burden and issue if we are or have become fearful of the road. No doubt we may have passed the driving test and have a valid driver’s licence, and yet we have not overcome our fear of driving, and thus, we are not able to drive on the highway with fast moving and heavy vehicles or in busy cities with lots of traffic. As we have avoided, we did not get the experience, and thus, we are not able to do so confidently, especially if we had gone through driving lessons years ago. The solution is actually to face our fears head-on, and if we have now forgotten, it’s time to take lessons again. There is no need to go through the tests, but a refresher course to reacquaint ourselves to driving again. The skill to drive is a necessity, especially if we need to deal with emergency situations. Face our fears and practice, and soon, we will be able to drive again.

Another example is public speaking, like giving a speech or preaching from the pulpit. I was particularly bad at this. My line of thought freezes. I will miss out on large chunks that I had wanted to say. While natural speakers will go on and on, I dread the time on the stand and always feel why it is taking so long to finish! Words don’t come naturally as I don’t have the gift of the gab. But the maxim, “practice makes perfect,” rings true here as the more we do it, the more confident we get. Although it will still not come naturally like those who can mutter thousands of words off the cuff, I’m now more confident and am more at ease. Preparation is key, and the more we prepare and internalise and practice, the better we will be.

As we have the Lord on our side as believers, we can look to Him for strength and guidance as we face our fears. If it’s due to a past traumatic experience, God can heal us. If it is due to a lack of natural talent, the Lord can help us in our preparation and help us manage our fears on stage, especially if His calling for us is to preach. Often, in preaching from the pulpit, a life transformed is the key to impactful and meaningful preaching. Somehow, the Holy Spirit works better in our midst if our lives are a living testimony of the goodness and reality of God.

The message this morning is to face our fears. Don’t run away and avoid. We need to take the leap of faith with God. If the baby eagle feared and did not take the first step to jump off the cliff and fly, it may remain forever perched on the high mountain, and the time may come when its body outgrows the strength of its wings. By then, if the grown eagile jumps, it may well jump to its death. Don’t be afraid. Move forward. The Lord is with us. Face our fears, whatever that may be, and we will overcome!

https://odb.org/MY/2023/02/12/information-and-evidence

John 21:15 is interesting as John mentioned that Jesus did many other things as well. If every single one of them were written down, he supposed that even the whole world may not have room for all the books that would be written. John 20:31 states that these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God. Thus, the perspective of the Gospels is that they had to pick and choose the major and more significant landmarks or milestones in Jesus’s 3 years plus of ministry as there are just so many things that He did and probably taught. The Synoptic Gospels will corroborate each other as they write about the same things, but John is a bit different as he focused on the diety of Christ, that Jesus was the Son of God and God Himself, incarnate in human flesh and form.

What I like about the bible is that it tells the stories of the lives of different and many people as they are impacted by God and as they relate to God, and that includes the good and bad as well as the embarrassing. For example, no attempt was made to cover up the sin of David with Bethsheba, although David is regarded as the finest of Israel.

The Old Testament is a testament to the goodness of Yahweh God while the New Testament is more about Jesus Christ as set out in the Gospels, as well as letters written mostly by Paul as he preached Christ resurrected and crucified. Nevertheless, these are stories of how the early believers lived out their faith and about His goodness upon their lives as they spread the faith out of Jerusalem and Judea, to Samaria, and to the lands of the Gentiles. The early church faced similar issues that we face today, like persecutions as well as false teachers. Division within the body. Contemporary faith issues like circumcision and homosexuality. Dealing with the pull of the world and materialism.

What I like to encourage us this morning is that our lives are a continuation of the goodness of God from the stories in the bible. We are like the people in the bible interacting and relating with God, living out our faith. We are in the world and yet not of the world. As we write and live out our own life stories, I believe there are scribes in heaven recording our lives, and like the writers of old, they will write the milestones on our spiritual journeys but without covering up our weak moments, weaknesses and sins. The books of our lives will be too voluminous if everything we ever did was recorded, but it remains that our lives will indeed be a testament to God’s goodness and love and compassion. The stories of Jesus were written, so we may believe that He is the Messiah and the Son of God. Will the stories of our lives be written that others may believe in Jesus as the Messiah and the Son of God? Will the stories of our lives be written as a testament to God’s goodness, love, and compassion?

https://odb.org/MY/2023/02/10/come-home-3

I had the same privilege of adopting a stray kitten that came into the deck of our home when she was only around 2 weeks old. She’s now a fully grown one and a half-year adult cat with her own place and potty. Whenever she’s threatened or scared, she will run back to her place. From a stray cat on the streets, she now has a permanent abode.

I recall when I first arrived at the capital city of Kuala Lumpur many years back to further my studies at the University of Malaya or “when I started college,” as the Americans would say. In my first two years, I stayed at in-house residential colleges within the university grounds. Subsequently, I rented a room about 7 km away from the university, having bought a beaten down old motorcycle, which afforded me more mobility than just my pair of legs. Later, when I started working, I was still renting the room that I had stayed as a student until I got married. That’s when we started renting a whole house, and it was at an upcoming suburb about 20 km from the city centre where I worked. We had no choice but to go further away as that was the locality we could afford to rent a whole place to ourselves and was sort of the middle distance between my wife’s workplace and mine. We later bought our first home, and now, after moving twice, we have sort of settled in our present abode as something of a permanent address. It was a long process to finally find our permanent address.

But with God, we have a permanent home in Him the moment we accepted Jesus in our lives. We are anchored in faith in Him. He is our North in our compass of life – the only point that is truly constant and unchanging. He is our rock and salvation. He is our place of refuge, the redeemer of our soul. There is no process of renting a room first, renting a house or apartment later before we “graduate” to our own home. Straight off the bat, we have a permanent place in God. Jesus is ours the moment we accepted Him into our lives. No temporary renting or probationary period. Or, in an alternative metaphorical example, we need not start with a social visit visa before moving on to permanent residential, then to citizenship. We are straightaway citizens of heaven from day one! In fact, in John 14:2, Jesus promised that He would go home to prepare a place for us as in His Father’s house, there are many mansions. We get a house to our name the moment we are in the family.

The message today, I believe, is that if we had wandered away far from home, it’s time to come home to Jesus. He was our first real spiritual home, and He must remain our home until our very last breadth. Come home to Jesus if we have strayed from Him. Always remember we immediately had a mansion in our name on the first day itself when we became citizens of heaven here on earth. Hang on there, and we will one day enjoy eternity in the house of the Lord!

https://odb.org/MY/2023/02/09/show-us

When the disciples asked Jesus to show them the Father, Jesus answered that if they had seen Him, they had seen the Father. Jesus further said I am in the Father and the Father is in Me. “The words I say to you I do not speak with my own authority.” Please see John 14:1-11.

This is the concept of the Holy Trinity that we know and believe in as Christians. God the Father, Jesus the Son and the Holy Spirit are one, and yet they are distinct. Thus, when Jesus came down to earth, He came as fully man, and yet He was still fully God as the Father was in Him, and He was in the Father. If you go back to Genesis 1:26, you will notice that just before God created man, He spoke in the plural form. God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit existed together since the beginning of time. John mentioned this in John 1 when he said that in the beginning, there was the Word (logos), and the Word was with God and was God. In verse 14, John wrote that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten (meaning son) of the Father, full of grace and truth.

I’m just reiterating the concept of the Holy Trinity here as a reminder to us as well as to enlighten those who may not know.

The message this morning is, however, a bit more personal. More often than not, as we go through crises, we can’t see Jesus in the midst of the commotion and the rush to deal with the situation. Usually, the events will overwhelm us, and we don’t see Jesus in all that. The Lord is assuring us today that He is in our midst and that He is with us even as we go through those rough times. As we pause and pray, we will see Him working in our midst. He is with us and in us. He has not forsaken us. He will bring us through those difficult times. There will be a light at the end of the tunnel. There is a resolution to all that misery and trouble. He will prevail with us. We will be victorious with Him at our side! He has never and will not ever forsake or abandon us! Amen!

https://odb.org/MY/2023/02/08/gods-arms-are-open

One of the fundamental precepts of our faith is forgiveness. We start our journey of faith with forgiveness when we seek God’s forgiveness by repenting from our sins and acknowledging Christ’s work on the cross and accepting Him as our Lord and Saviour. Corollary to that Jesus taught us in the Lord’s prayer to forgive others as the Father had forgiven us – “Father, forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespassed against us”.

Thus, having a forgiving heart is a given as a Christian. There is no way around it. There is no way we could avoid it as much as we may sometimes want to. Certainly not something we could rationalise away. We can not say that person was cruel and extremely mean to us or that he did that really evil thing to us. “An eye for an eye” is a thing of the past. It is now, “Give him the other cheek.” There is just no justification not to forgive.

At most, we could only plead for what the Lord had said before – “vengeance is mine.” That, however, means it’s for God to deal with the way He deems fit, and chances are He may also forgive! This is because He is more a God of love and compassion than a God of vengeance, of fire and brimstone. In fact, if given half a chance, the Lord will offer a place in heaven if they repent and believe in Jesus. So don’t put too much hope on God avenging the wrongs done to us against our evil and wicked perpetrators.

The Lord may, however, restore to us what the locusts had destroyed. Like the Shunammite woman whom God restored her home, lands, and all produce from her lands during her 7-year sojourn away when she returned to Judah after the famine; God may do the same for us. There will be new paths to explore and journey on. What has happened has happened. We leave those behind and move on.

If we harbour the thought that God will avenge us by having some tragedy or calamity befall the people who had wronged us, then we are having a vengeful spirit, and that, in my view is not forgiveness. Asking the Lord to take revenge for us is not a loophole to exploit when we are not to avenge the wrongs done to us ourselves. Harbouring a hope for vengeance by proxy means that we have not forgiven. It means that we still want to get even.

The message this morning is to embrace forgiveness as much as it is difficult in some instances. Forgive and move on. Pray for those who had wronged or hurt us. Perhaps they will change over time. The Lord will heal us. There will be other opportunities and alternative pathways. God will make a way for us. We will have a fresh start. A new beginning. Praise the Lord!

https://odb.org/MY/2023/02/07/the-good-shepherd-2

Ezekial 34:11-19 has been interpreted before as being fulfilled with the establishment of the state of Israel in 1947 as the scattered tribes of Israel were gathered back to the land of Israel from all over the world. It proved that the LORD God was indeed a good shepherd, ensuring His sheep were taken care of and reunited in the land given to their forefathers during the time of Abraham and later after their liberation from Egypt by Moses with Joshua and Caleb leading them after 40 years in the wilderness. The creation of Israel is a big picture of God’s sovereign will and plans and has also been interpreted as the precursor to the second coming of Christ and the great tribulation and the end of age. That is why it is believed that these are end times and our generation may live long enough to see the second coming.

How does Ezekial 34 impact us on the spiritual front? How should we react to Ezekial 34? I guess we are all aware that God is a good shepherd for His people, His flock. Jesus Himself proclaimed that He is the good shepherd (John 10:11, 14) and that His sheep will hear His voice (John 10:27). There is no doubt that Christ had gone through great lengths to reach out to us when we were lost and will do the same again if we are ever lost again.

But I think the pertinent point for us as believers is instead to be a good sheep. Don’t get lost again! Instead, we recognise His voice and listen out for Him. We follow Him and go to Him when He calls. We try our utmost best to lessen His work so that He need not drop everything and go running after us. We don’t get distracted and get led astray by bright and fancy lights. We don’t wander off the beaten path to explore new greener pastures on our own. The grass will always look greener on the other side, but unless the Shepherd leads us there, we must not go. Can we be good, obedient, and compliant sheep who seek to only accomplish the will of the shepherd and who give the least headache to Him? It is my hope and prayer that I and all of us will be good sheep for 2023 so that we will truly live in the centre and glory of His will for us!

https://odb.org/MY/2023/02/06/the-loneliest-man

There is a saying that goes, you can be lonely in a crowd, meaning to say, you are not all alone like Robinson Crusoe on an island or Michael Collins of Appollo II on the far side of the moon having lost contact with his fellow astronauts and earth, yet we are lonely.

We are lonely because we are not doing things together or are not of the same bandwidth. There is an emotional disconnect. We can not truly relate to those around us. Maybe because our mission in life is too radically different. We are on a mission to fulfil God’s plans and purposes while they are on a mission, their own pursuits, and ambitions. So our friends will not be the ones to encourage us to strive harder for the Lord. Instead, they may mock and laugh at us.

If we have a soul-mate who is on the same wavelength as us in terms of our mission and service in God, then we have someone to relate to and motivate and support each other to achieve our goals in the Lord. That will be good. But then human companionship has its limitations.

Ultimately, like Joseph being thrown into prison for a crime he did not commit, the best person to console and encourage us if we feel we are all alone is the Lord Himself. When the Lord was with Joseph, He showed him kindness and granted him favour in the eyes of the prison warden. That is what we should aim for if we feel we are all alone. Lest we turn to drink and other avenues and bring ourselves into the downward spiral of brokenness and depression.

In the case of Elijah, who had defeated the prophets of Baal and yet was disappointed by the Israelites’ insolence of not turning back to God, the LORD sent an angel to comfort and cook for him. Later, at the cave in Mount Horeb, the LORD encouraged and gave him a way out of his disappointment. In fact, the LORD assured him that he had reserved 7,000 in Israel, who had not bowed down to Baal. See 1 Kings 19.

As human beings, we will all go through seasons when we may feel we are all alone despite being with friends and colleagues or fellow workers in Christ. Seek out the Lord for He will surely be with us like He did with Joseph and Elijah to encourage us. Always remain righteous before Him and faithful to Him and do not look elsewhere to drown our sorrows and disappointments or loneliness. Look to the LORD, and He will give us rest.